I'm torn about your thoughts. One part of me says: you're describing how it feels to think, and how it feels to think you're thinking more clearly than other pe

I'm torn about your thoughts. One part of me says: you're describing how it feels to think, and how it feels to think you're thinking more clearly than other people. There are people who have come to the opposite conclusion on every issue you raised, also due to what they see as their ability to think more steps ahead than the average person. I also think there's something seductive about characterizing suffering people as shocked. If only it were so satisfying for us, the correct ones. A lot of people do know that something in their life is limiting them, maybe even slowly killing them, but they're also not fixing the problem. Others are thinking really hard but not seeing their own suffering or cruelty at all. The idea that smart people who think deeply might still be suffering or hurting others can be a frightening idea to play with, because opening up our reality to that idea means potentially realizing that we ourselves are suffering or hurting others in a way that all our HN-quality cleverness can't save us from. It's a tender seam for "gifted kids" to start mining, there can be some half-healed wounds in there. A lot of people on here probably had to protect themselves or people they love with their minds, or still have to. I do think you describe beautifully, with the car story, how people exist now in systems that offer them an overwhelming number of choices, and how these systems are large and confusing enough that people are cut off from the consequences of their choices: maybe because their choices hurt someone else, maybe because the consequence is delayed, maybe because they just don't see clearly in the blur of everything happening. Many outcomes are dissatisfyingly murky and multi-factorial even when people are paying close attention and conducting scientific research. Thanks for your post, it made me think.